


Your Place or Mine(craft)?

by Blizzard_Fire



Series: ThorBruce Week 2019 [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Adorable Bruce Banner, Bruce Banner-centric, Bruce has a Nintendo Switch, Clint is a gamer, Cute, Domestic Avengers, First Kiss, Fluff, Gaming, Helpful JARVIS, M/M, Minecraft, POV Bruce Banner, Post-Avengers (2012), Thor (Marvel) is Not Stupid, ThorBruce Week, ThorBruce Week 2019, Tony wants no part of this nerd shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2020-12-27 22:04:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21125987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blizzard_Fire/pseuds/Blizzard_Fire
Summary: Sparkle_K1ng: nt much room in hereBruce looks up from the couch. Thor is smiling softly as he types on his Nintendo switch.Bbannerr: I can make a bigger one?Sparkle_K1ng: no it is fine i am happy to share a bedroom with youThis time when he looks up Thor is smiling at him. There's a smirky tilt to one corner of his mouth.Bruce promptly mines into a ravine, falls thirty blocks and dies in a pool of lava.Thor and Bruce bond over Minecraft. Fluff ensues.





	Your Place or Mine(craft)?

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "Space/Alone" for ThorBruce Week 2019.
> 
> Ayy it's ThorBruce week! I'm so excited!
> 
> I've been playing a lot of Minecraft lately and I figured Bruce would find it a valuable relaxation tool. Basically I'm just projecting my gaming addiction here. I'm mainly a PS4 gamer but my switch always comforts me on dentist trips/long car journeys etc.
> 
> I haven't pre-written most of the prompts (fics usually take a week to write) but I am planning on doing all of them, just not during the week itself. I wanna make em good! But days 1-3 are done, so look forward to those in the next few days <3

It's Clint who hands him the switch.

Bruce is slumped on the floor of the Quinjet, shivering and trying not to vomit. The rocking of the floor isn't helping matters. Hulk-outs are tough on him, even more so these days since they happen more often. The rest of the Avengers don't look much better: Steve is helping Nat remove clumps of slime from her hair, Tony is dozing with his helmet in his lap, and Thor -

Thor seems invigorated by the battle, thumping Clint's arm as he regales him with a blow-by-blow account: 'And then Hulk punched a hole in the side of the building so I jumped through and I hit the leader with Mjolnir - and he exploded! And there was slime everywhere. Then Stark came along -'

'Uh-huh.' Clint is barely listening, eyes glued to the handheld game console in his hands. Buttons click rapidly. 'I was there for most of that, buddy.'

'- and he took out their communication device so then we could disable the Heart of Darkness so they couldn't release the virus -'

The console blurps. Clint huffs in frustration and slumps back in his seat. 'Oh dude, you made me die!'

Thor pauses, frowning. 'Is that a good thing?'

Clint glares. 'Why would that be a good thing?'

Thor shrugs. 'When Peter says "you kill me" it means I am funny. When Stark says "you're killing me" it means I am being obtuse.' He glances at the screen, fails to understand what he sees and pats him on the shoulder. 'I am sorry for your loss,' he says sincerely.

And despite feeling like shit, Bruce manages to smile at that. 'What are you playing?' he asks, seeing Clint's pout.

'Cuphead. Trying to beat my high score.' He looks up. 'Wanna try?'

He doesn't. But Clint's already coming over to sit with him and Bruce doesn't want to hurt his feelings. The Switch feels too large in his tired hands. He attempts a level of Cuphead at Clint's insistence but it's too bright and intense so he presses the home button to see what else is on offer. Clint has Cuphead, Skyrim, Goat Simulator... Minecraft catches his eye. It looks simple and calming.

'I don't even know why I downloaded that,' says Clint. 'Seriously, there's better games on there.'

Bruce loads up a world. He spawns on a grassy hill overlooking the ocean. Blocky sheep and pigs watch him from the undergrowth. Clint explains the basics to him but it's not hard to grasp. Bruce has never played a video game - he's just never found the time - but he's pleasantly surprised by how much fun it is. Clint and Thor resume their conversation. He hears none of it.

It's almost a shame when they arrive at Stark Tower and he has to give the switch back. But by then he's ready to sleep.

The next time Bruce plays Minecraft, he's up at 4am after a nightmare.

He fights for breath in the darkness as the other guy roars inside his head. All he can think of is that he needs something to do, something to focus on to keep him here. 'JARVIS,' he gulps, 'I need a distraction.'

_'Can you be more specific?'_

'I need - ' He remembers the meditative calm he achieved when borrowing Clint's game. 'Clint has a gaming console. What's the game where everything's made up of cubes?'

_'That would be Minecraft_.' A screen flashes up, showing a store page. '_I hear it is a calming game. Shall I install it onto your phone?'_

'You can do that?' Bruce fumbles in the dark and snatches it up.

_'The pocket edition is a little more basic, but the core mechanics are the same. Downloading now.'_

Stark Wi-Fi is whip-fast, and thirty seconds later he's standing in a forest full of parrots. It's harder to play with only a touch screen, but Bruce makes do. The nightmare melts away under the repetitive action of mine and build. Why was Clint embarrassed about owning this game? It's fun, gentle...

He's just finished his dirt hut when there's a soft hiss. Something explodes and then his hut is gone.

_Player was blown up by Creeper_

_'May I suggest playing in "peaceful" mode until you are feeling calmer, Doctor?'_

Bruce sighs and consults the settings menu.

From then on, he's hooked. He plays it before bed to calm his mind, or after something Hulk-related shows on the news. When they're on a mission but there's no code green yet, he recites blocks. Dirt, andesite, gravel, wool, purpur, obsidian. Like a periodic table.

But when his phone overheats and his hands seize up from playing on a small screen, he considers expanding his horizons.

The switch is expensive. He can afford it of course, but it's a guilty purchase. When he was on the run, even a book was a luxury. But if it helps keep the other guy at bay - and by extension make New York a little safer from smashing - perhaps it's a worthy investment.

It's the best thing he's ever bought.

He makes wooden huts on tiny islands, carves secret tunnels into hills and mountains, clears out old ruins and lines them with carpet. He tames the wilderness and makes it his own. Sometimes he loads up a finite map and spends hours flattening the earth and filing in the oceans until everything is an endless neat green field. Then he loads up and does it all again. It's a virtual space that's utterly his, and he can remake it exactly as he wants.

It's like smashing, but the opposite.

After a particularly bad mission that leaves Bruce green-tinged, Thor finally asks about the game.

'What is the objective?' he asks, his voice muffled under the drone of the jet engine. He's sat next to Bruce, seat-belt stretched over his dented armour.

Bruce shrugs. 'There isn't one, really. Just exploring and building things.' He's in creative mode, covering every available surface with yellow dandelions. There's a fury in him that isn't his, and he's close to tears as he tries to cling on. The others have gone quiet and he knows they're all watching him. But everything will be okay as long as he keeps planting flowers.

Thor's solid presence is comforting. 'Tell me about it?'

And so he does. He tells Thor about the cave house he's working on at home and the new blocks that were added in the last update. He tells him about mob farms and dungeons. He knows he's rambling, but talking grounds him so he keeps going. Thor doesn't understand most of what he's saying, but he nods along and seems genuinely interested.

By the time they land the anger is gone. Bruce feels a bit fried, but he's buzzed from sharing his new hobby.

It has nothing to do with the way Thor smiles at him.

'You could teach me.'

Bruce looks up from his latest experiment. To his surprise it's dark outside. Time flies when you're deconstructing a Skasis Entanglement. Thor sits on a nearby workbench, fingers interlocked, swinging his legs. 'Uh, teach you what? Entangling?' He points at the row of frothing test tubes.

Thor shakes his head. 'The mining game you like. With the - the squares and the red stones.'

Bruce removes his glasses and stretches out a kink in his spine. He really has been here for hours. 'You want to learn... Minecraft?'

'I am curious what makes it so appealing to you. Midgardian hobbies fascinate me.'

Bruce needs no further encouragement. He should probably call it a night here anyway. So he digs out his switch, demonstrates the basics and then hands it to Thor. It looks odd in his large hands, but Thor has no problems learning the controls. Soon, he's sprinting across the map punching sheep. Bruce tells him how to make a sword. Thor is delighted.

'This is amazing! This game is extremely violent. I thought Midgardians frowned upon such behaviour?'

Bruce smiles. 'Virtual violence is more acceptable here.' They're sitting on the workbench, his left knee pressed against Thor's right. Every now and then Thor leans even closer to show him something, and his beard scratches Bruce's stubble. Bruce generally dislikes being touched, but Thor is Thor and it's casual and incidental... and anyway, it's nice to have company.

'I have twenty-three porkchops. A veritable Asgardian feast,' he says proudly.

It's Bruce who leans over this time. 'If you put those in a furnace you can cook them. You want to try making a farm?'

Thor's eyes light up.

It becomes a post-battle ritual. Once Bruce is conscious and semi-dressed, someone takes the emergency switch from the overhead compartment and presses it into his shaking hands. Tony teased him for it at first, but even he had noticed the positive effect it had on him. Now there's a switch in every jet they have.

Bruce always assumed video games were about shooting people and blowing things up, neither of which sounded much like escapism to him. But here there are endless things to build and discover, as many worlds as he wants.

Someone discovers that Hulk calms down when you read Minecraft wiki entries to him. This is considered such a huge breakthrough that it goes on his SHIELD file as classified information. Just in case someone tries to use it against them. Bruce is doubtful that an alien army will know what a kelp block is.

It's best to keep the emergency switch on the Quinjet, so Bruce signs up for cloudsave so he can access his worlds from anywhere. Some evenings are spent with Thor, showing him how to build things. Thor is content to slaughter animals and eat the (cooked) results.

So when Bruce comes downstairs one morning and Thor is playing on a switch of his own, something inexplicable deflates in his chest.

'Clint set it up for me,' Thor says happily, glancing up at him. 'So I won't have to borrow yours all the time.'

'Great.' He pads over to the coffee maker to hide his disappointment.

'Alas, I can't seem to make a pickaxe.'

When Bruce turns back, Thor smiles hopefully. 'Show me?'

Bruce smiles back before he can stop himself. 'Sure.'

It's Thor who suggests they create a world together.

They're sat together on the couch whilst the rain falls outside. It's cosy. He feels a thrill as they spawn in...

_BBannerr joined the game_

_Sparkle_K1ng joined the game_

Bruce raises an eyebrow. Thor shrugs. 'Clint chose my name.'

They hurry to make a shelter before nightfall and they huddle in their tiny wooden hut.

'I hear a skeleton,' Bruce says, and starts crafting a sword.

Thor opens the door and runs out into the night. There are skeleton dying noises. 'Fear not, Bruce.' His avatar returns, studded with arrows. 'I shall keep you safe.'

Bruce feels himself blush.

Weeks pass, and their virtual space grows. Thor makes a vegetable garden. Bruce expands the hut. He builds an attic and crams in two beds: red for Thor, purple for himself.

_<Sparkle_K1ng> nt much room in here_

Bruce looks up from the couch. Thor sits at the breakfast table, smiling softly as he types on his touch screen.

_<Sparkle_K1ng> dpnt worry i dont snore_

Bruce is currently down a mine. He went looking for redstone so he could build some mob traps and now he's hopelessly lost.

_<Bbannerr> I can make a bigger one?_

_<Bbannerr> You can build your own room if you want. We don't have a basement yet._

_<Sparkle_K1ng> no it is fine i am happy to share a bedroom with you_

This time when he looks up Thor is smiling at him. It's a gleeful little "isn't this fun" smile, but there's a smirky tilt to one corner of his mouth. A smile Loki would be proud of.

Bruce promptly mines into a ravine, falls thirty blocks and dies in a pool of lava. 

'What are you two grinning about?' Natasha asks, back still turned as she rummages through the cereal cupboard.

'Don't ask,' says Tony, breezing in with toast already in hand. 'And don't get too close, you'll catch nerd cooties.' He narrows his eyes at Bruce, crunching slowly. 'You realise what you've done, right? A god of thunder is playing Minecraft in my kitchen.'

Clint resurfaces from his mug of morning coffee. 'I know, it's weird right? Like Steve trying to use Twitter. Except Thor actually knows what he's doing.'

There's a lengthy pause in which Bruce struggles to get his blush under control.

Steve pokes his head around the door. 'Who just said I'm bad at Twitter?'

The hut becomes a house with three storeys, complete with automated defences and a secret room behind the bookcase.

'What are you doing?' Thor asks, when he realises Bruce has been rifling through menus for nearly five minutes.

'Trying to make glazed terracotta,' he grumps. 'I'm used to creative mode so I have no idea how to make it.'

They're back in their favourite spot on the couch. It's snowing outside, and a woolly blanket is thrown over their laps. Bruce is recovering from undergoing two Hulk-outs in the same day and waking up half-buried in a blizzard; the latest Earth invaders were annoyingly persistent. Even Thor has wrenched his shoulder.

'Glazed terracotta is easy,' says Thor. 'You need four clay balls to make a clay block, smelt that into terracotta, dye it and then smelt it again to glaze it.'

Bruce gapes at him. 'Wow. Uh, thanks. How - how did you know that?'

Thor winks. 'Who did you think was reading Hulk the wiki entries?'

And Bruce realises that he's smitten.

Clint, who has been playing Mario Kart opposite them for the last half hour, stands up. 'Feel like I'm third-wheeling here. I'll see you guys later.'

They continue their game in relative silence. But if Bruce happens to shuffle up to lean his head on Thor's shoulder... Thor doesn't seem to mind at all.

When Thor is summoned back to Asgard, Bruce struggles to hide his sadness.

'I shall not be gone long, but father requires my presence to discourage a few minor skirmishes.' Thor walks with him across the grounds, tossing his hammer every few steps. After spending so much time gaming in the living room, it's strange to see him in armour.

'No, I get it,' Bruce assures him, wringing his hands. 'God duties. Comes with the title.' He's going to be alone and it's silly and selfish but he wants to grab Thor's arm and urge him to stay.

Thor produces his switch and hands it to Bruce. 'Best if I leave this with you. There is no Wi-Fi on Asgard, and the Bifrost could damage its inner workings.' Bruce just nods and takes it from him, holding it against his chest. Thor seems to sense his reluctance. 'Look after my farm for me, make sure the chickens don't escape.' And suddenly he's cupping Bruce's face gently in his hands, a thumb stroking his cheek. 'I'll be back as soon as I can,' he murmurs, and presses his lips to the corner of Bruce's mouth.

Bruce gasps softly, freezing in shock, but then Thor is stepping away and raising his hammer to the sky. 'Heimdall?' he calls, and then he's surrounded by a pillar of light.

But he maintains fond eye contact until he's engulfed in the flickering stream.

When Bruce loads up their world, he finds a dandelion that has been planted outside the door. A sign beside it reads, _"to remember me until i return :)"._ Bruce grins and starts searching for clay so he can make a flower pot.

He makes some worlds of his own so he can practice building redstone contraptions, but every night he comes back to add some torches to Thor's farm or dig up some sand to make more windows. The house is more like a mansion now; there are multiple secret tunnels beneath it, and the living room is full of pet cats, dogs and parrots. Bruce has a hidden "lab" complete with brewing stand, cauldron and item sorter. Attached to this is Thor's armoury, which includes a small library for enchanting weapons. They've yet to defeat the Ender Dragon, but Thor has been preparing for ages.

Bruce obtains a trident and enchants it with Loyalty (so it always returns to the thrower) and Channelling (enemies are struck by lightning when hit). He names it "Mine-olnir" and leaves it in a chest for Thor to find.

'Ew, do you _have_ to do that in here?'

'Do what?' Bruce stares innocently back at Tony, sipping from a mug of late-night coffee. On the holoscreen behind him, a batch of iron ore is smelting.

'Your dirty millennial blocks game. This is a holy place of science. You're tainting it.'

'I'm waiting for my isotope injector.' Bruce uses a joycon to point at the experiment currently obscuring the lab table. 'Just need to make some more sticky pistons.'

JARVIS pipes up. '_May I recommend the slime chunk approximately three hundred blocks north of you, Doctor?'_

Tony looks scandalised. 'J, not you too.'

_'Apologies sir, but I'm afraid I have been assisting Doctor Banner in his Minecraft adventures. You may be surprised at its usefulness as a learning tool and for relieving stress.'_

'Feel free to join me,' says Bruce. 'Peter plays it too, you know. Maybe it'd help you get in touch with millennial culture.'

Tony pulls a face behind his safety goggles. 'I can't believe you just said that. Next thing you'll be making vines and dabbing and saying "yeet". No, the kid and I bond over _science,_ thank you. And making cool science shit is somehow less nerdy than... whatever you guys get up to.' Bruce feels his gaze on him and stares resolutely at the screen. 'How long has it been now?'

He sighs. 'Three weeks.'

'You're gonna start eating the wallpaper soon.' He swipes a joycon from Bruce's hand. 'Wanna blow something up? That always cheers you up.'

'Thanks Tony, but I'll stick with this tonight.' Bruce swivels on his stool, sticks an elbow on the table and leans his head on his hand. They've been in the lab since four-thirty, and it's now almost midnight. And he's had fun doing science with Tony, he really has, but...

'Hmm.' Tony cocks his head to one side, studying him like a suspicious parent. 'Doctor Banner, are you _pining?'_

Bruce starts. 'No.'

'You _are,_ aren't you?' A grin creeps across his face. 'Did you guys go cave plundering?' Bruce just grunts and closes his eyes. A hand claps him on the shoulder. 'Okay, forget blowing stuff up. I'm ordering pizza. You want pizza? Science bros gossip. I want the scoop.' And he's off, reeling off an order to JARVIS as he paces around the lab.

Bruce hides his head in his hand. There's every chance that Thor won't be back for months. It was stupid of him to get his hopes up, to think that he could hold the attention of a god who has better things to do than make a chicken farm.

He looks up, and there is a message on the screen.

_Sparkle_K1ng has joined the game_

Bruce stares at it in disbelief, then he's scrabbling to find his other joycon. His hands are shaking so much he can barely type.

_<Bbannerr>_ _Thor?_

_<Sparkle_K1ng>_ _asgrd was boring_

_<Sparkle_K1ng>_ _how hv you been_

_<Bbannerr> A little lonely._

_<Sparkle_K1ng> :(_

_<Sparkle_K1ng> did you like the flower_

_<Bbannerr>_ _ Yeah, I put it in the attic._

On a tiny table between their beds. And Bruce absolutely hadn't got soppy about seeing it every day and thinking about how a virtual flower would never wilt.

_<Sparkle_K1ng> !!!_

_<Sparkle_K1ng> you made mjolnir!_

Thor's avatar emerges from their basement, jumping around as he wields the trident.

_<Sparkle_K1ng> where are yu so i can thank you in person_

Bruce takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly.

_<Bbannerr> You sure you want to do that?_

Thor's avatar stops moving. Somewhere in Stark Tower, Thor is typing. It takes an agonisingly long time.

_<Sparkle_K1ng> i am sorry if i was forward did i interpret things incorrectly_

Bruce gazes at the screen for a long moment, letting everything hang in the balance. He thinks about how happy Thor makes him, and how much it ached to be without him.

_<Bbannerr> Please can you kiss me again_

_<Sparkle_K1ng> come find me my love_

A slow, happy smile spreads across his face and in the next second he's out of the lab, taking the stairs up two at a time.

It's Tony who sees the creeper on the screen, and he yells for Bruce just as a chunk of the Minecraft house is destroyed. 'Oh, shit!' Tony glances around for Bruce, who is nowhere to be found. 'Oh.' He smirks when he sees the messages on the screen. Only Bruce could flirt through a video game. 'He's gonna go green if he sees this.' He picks up the joycons. How hard can it be to fix?

'Hey J, you're a nerd. How do I fix the lovebirds' house?'

If he didn't know better, he'd say JARVIS sounds smug. '_It's quite simple, sir. But first, would you like a tutorial of the basics?'_

Tony looks furtively around the lab one final time, then sits on Bruce's stool. 'If you tell anyone I'll give you a French accent. Now show me how this damn game works.'

**Author's Note:**

> I had so much fun creating this that I made some aesthetic [screenshots](https://superblizzardfire.tumblr.com/post/188926112403/thor-and-bruce-bond-over-minecraft-fluff-ensues) of the boys' Minecraft world on my Tumblr!
> 
> (Whilst editing this I accidentally posted tomorrow's half-finished fic!!! So if you got an email, sorry it's not ready yet and will be posted tomorrow.)


End file.
